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| So now there is a new way to be politically correct? |
paraclete |
10/02/06 |
I wonder what his politically correct term for Jew was before he discovered he is one?
The fall of an all-American boy
Michael Gawenda
October 2, 2006
A few weeks ago, the New York Jewish newspaper The Forward published a front-page article in which it provided evidence to suggest that Etty Allen was Jewish, the daughter of Sephardic Jews. Indeed the Lumbruso family, of which she was a member, according to The Forward, was one of Tunisia's most distinguished pre-World War II Jewish families, having produced scholars, historians and even a chief rabbi or two of Tunis.
Tunisia was occupied by German forces for six months from November 1942 and Etty's father, Felix, was rounded up along with other Jews and sent to a labour camp.
Etty Lumbruso and her family migrated to the US after the war and Etty's American story is one of transformation - the sort of story Americans love - for she ended up married to a legendary football coach, George Allen, and their son, also George and himself a high school and college football star, was, until recently, a leading contender seeking the Republican Party's presidential nomination for 2008.
No longer. Allen, the senator from Virginia, who six weeks ago had an unassailable lead in his re-election bid against his Democratic opponent in the November 7 poll, is fighting for his political life.
Allen's apparent political demise - those presidential ambitions are now dead and buried - is a truly American story, and like so many American stories, it is hard to decide whether it is a tragedy or a farce. Perhaps it is both.
Despite the fact that he was raised in southern California, Allen throughout his political career - and even while he was a student at the University of Virginia - affected a populist, good ole boy identity, complete with a particular liking for the Confederate flag, chewing tobacco and multicoloured cowboy boots.
But six weeks ago, Allen's re-election campaign began to unravel. While speaing at an election rally in rural Virginia, he turned to a young man of Indian descent - dark-skinned! - who Allen knew was filming him for the campaign committee of his opponent.
"That fella here, over here in the yellow shirt, macaca or whatever his name is, he's with my opponent," he said. "So welcome to macaca here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."
Within hours, the "macaca" slur was all over the internet. It made the front pages of virtually every American newspaper. The video was shown over and over again on cable news shows.
Allen refused to apologise. He said he had no idea what macaca meant. No one seemed to know what it meant except that it seemed to be a racial slur.
Allen apologised. Again and again. But he continued to say he had no idea where macaca had come from. Then came The Forward story about Etty Allen and her distinguished Jewish ancestry. The newspaper had contacted Allen to ask him whether he knew about his mother's background. Allen's campaign team decided to ignore the request.
Two weeks later, during a debate with his opponent, Jim Webb, a local television reporter asked Allen about The Forward story. Allen was stunned and furious. His mother, he said, was French-Italian "with some Spanish blood as well".
"I was raised, as she was raised, a Christian. Are you casting aspersions?"
Turns out that Allen lied. Etty Allen, after The Forward story was published, told her son that she had been raised a Jew and that when she came to America, she decided to shed her Jewish identity in order to save her children from the suffering her family had experienced. And because her husband, who was planning a football coaching career, thought the fact of her Jewishness might be a problem.
Allen meanwhile had become a man who had no idea who he actually was. He told reporters that he was proud of his newly discovered Jewish background but went on to say that he had just had a ham sandwich for lunch and that his mother made great pork chops. He said he had reassured her that he loved her more than ever. As for macaca, it turns out to be an African monkey and a word used by Italian-French North Africans before the war to … well the rest is obvious.
America is a country where personal transformation is a defining element of personal and national identity, the great melting pot in which people from all sorts of backgrounds become as American as apple pie - or slices of pepperoni pizza. Last week, some of Allen's former college football teammates came forward to say that he often referred to black people as "niggers", something that he has vigorously denied. But few people believe him.
George Allen's rise and fall is a cautionary American tale of the down side of personal transformation: the past can come back to destroy you.
Michael Gawenda is the Herald's Washington correspondent. |
Clarification/Follow-up by MarySusan on 10/02/06 4:20 am:
George Allen is a classic racist and bully. He is running for office in a Southern state where hints of racism is not always a negative with voters.
It looks like this boob may be defeated for reelection to the Senate. His campaign is in disarray.
To top it all off, he is Jewish and he didn't want anyone to know it. His mother is Jewish; that makes him Jewish.
Clarification/Follow-up by Dark_Crow on 10/02/06 1:04 pm:
Oh yes; it was a German who first said that… "His mother is Jewish; that makes him Jewish.".
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